Those Years
by Secondhand Soul
Summary: When they were young, imagination was the only tool they needed to travel to different worlds. If only they had kept that innocence forever...


Footfalls stuck the sand again and again as laughter rang out, traveling across the crystalline waters. They were the shrill laughs of children, the laughs of sticky ice cream and pretend sword fights on the white beach, the laughs of footraces across wooden bridges and games of King of the Hill.

Above and below, surrounding them on all sides for countless miles, was a tropical paradise steeped in all the charm of the most congested tourist islands but with none of the hustle and bustle. It was no big city, but to the mind of a child it held all the adventure anyone could ever need. In a pinch an old shack could become a dragon's lair and the bridge leading to it could become a moat infested with crocodiles and piranhas. The old zip line could become a perilous trap set by an evil Overlord, and even a grouping of three palm trees could become a mighty deciduous forest filled with beats and perils untold.

Racing across the beach, his features unusually pale for island dwellers, was a boy whose eyes held all the determination the world could contain. He was trailed by another boy, sporting a carefree smile, who was tanned as the sun baked earth, his brown hair sticking up helter skelter.

"Hey, Riku!" called the tanned boy. "Wait up!"

"If you can't keep up, you're too slow!" teased the other, glancing back at his friend with a playful look in his aquamarine eyes. "Come on, Sora! Last one to the bridge is a guppy!"

"Ah, no fair! You have a head start!"

The pale boy clambered up a wall and rolled onto his feet, smiling and laughing as the brunette chased ever after him, trying to scramble up the wall but falling onto his butt in the golden sands below.

A girl, her hair as red as clay, stumbled after them, giggling so hard she could barely walk.

"Sora's a guppy!" called the boy named Riku, his hands on his hips, his six year old face glowing with a confidence that most chased after their entire lives, yet never found. "Come on, Sora, or Kairi'll beat you here!"

"Rikuuuuuu!" moaned Sora, collapsing at his friend's feet. "Head starts aren't FAIR!"

Riku just laughed at his friend, lifting the smaller boy up by his armpit and smiling slyly. "I didn't have a head start, guppy. We started running at the same time."

Sora swatted at his friend, but Riku released him and jumped backwards, causing the spiky haired youth to sway and loose his balance, falling unceremoniously into the dirt. "Wooooah!

"Don't be so mean, Riku!" chided a high pitched voice as the girl named Kairi stumbled across the bridge; Riku just continued to smile.

"Don't be silly, Kairi," said Riku in the voice of someone who liked to think he knew what he was talking about.

The girl frowned at him, her arms crossed over her chest, but Sora sprang to his feet, rubbing the back of his head. "Oops!" Grinning at his two best friends with a big toothy smile, eyes squeezed tightly shut, Sora didn't look bothered in the least. "So, what're we going to do today, Riku?"

"Hm," the silver haired youth crossed his arms over his chest, as if it were the most serious thing in the world. "Well, we just played Castle yesterday... So, I think we should play Space Station! Kairi, you can be the bad guy this time because it's always me or Sora!"

"But Kairi can't be a bad _guy_, Riku! She's a girl!" objected Sora; of course, Kairi had lapsed into a fit of giggles.

"You know what I mean, guppy," said Riku, seeming to contemplate his next decision.

Swooping, he put his friend in a head lock.

S - 2011 - S

"Hey!" called the voice of a boy aged about ten as his friend's arm wrapped around his neck.

The two boys fell to the ground, rolling around in the sand and laughing like fools. Sora struggled like a fish on a hook, flailing his arms wildly in an attempt to free himself of the burden of the boy attached to him.

"Say uncle, Sora, or I won't let go!" said the silver haired boy on top of him, his long silver bangs falling into aquamarine eyes.

"Uncle! Uncle!" laughed Sora between gasps, pushing away from Riku, who had loosened his hold and was now sitting, legs splayed out, on the sand.

He, too, was laughing, his head tossed back, staring at the clear blue of the sky. Sora collapsed beside him, looking his best friend in the eye and laughing even harder. Their laughter was almost uncontrollable - that was, until _someone _dumped an entire bucket of spring water on them.

"Kairi!" sputtered Sora, who stared up at the red head indignantly, pouting.

"What is your problem, woman?" exclaimed Riku, a wicked glint in his eye.

Kairi, who was laughing ecstatically, ceased her chortles when Riku shook his hair out on her like a wet dog. She screeched, falling backward into the sand. Sora and Riku, exchanging a look, each grabbed one of her forearms and easily hoisted her to her feet, dragging her to the shore and pushing her into the water.

Drenched, Kairi sat in the water, her eyes narrowed, but she couldn't hide her amusement and soon began to giggle, splashing both of her impish friends in the face with a well aimed slap.

And so the water fight ensued as Riku and Sora both dove in after her, chasing her all the way around the islet by both swimming and running. As the sun set, the three friends all exhaustedly climbed the ladder up to the Paopu island and collapsed in the waning shade of the arched tree, resting against its curved trunk.

"You think we'll be like this forever?" asked Sora after a moment. "I mean, just the three of us?"

"Summer has to end _some_time," said Kairi, "even though I don't want it to."

Riku, for once, said nothing, his green-blue eyes focused on some unknown point on the horizon.

"I hope we are!" quipped Sora, whose face then fell. "I don't know what I would do if I was all alone here."

"Don't worry," Kairi said, "I'm sure nothing will change, even if we do have to go back to school."

"Ew," agreed Sora.

"I'll find a way," said Riku suddenly. "I'll keep us together. I know I can."

It was there, at the base of the Paopu tree, that the tree friends swore they would never leave each other.

* * *

><p><em>To those of you reading this, thank you. I would appreciate a review to know if you'd be interested in reading more of my KH realated works.<em>


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